HELP fully
Hi everyone this is Claudia Militarou back on John Militarou Ministries show
I'm here with my father John Militarou we just got back from our December trip
our annual Christmas trip that we take every year we just got back it was a very
successful trip it was a very interesting trip we've never experienced
some of the stuff that we experienced ever before which we'll get more in
detail later on in this show but first of all I want to say thank you to
everyone that's helped us with everything and prayed for us prayed for
for our safety which is very important what was very important on this trip and
for all God's blessing that he helped us with everything that we did before we
start before I want to get in any details of the trip I wanted to read the
scripture that my dad and I picked out before we started this program I want to
go first in the chapter which is the book of Matthew chapter 19th but I
want to go to verse 13 first it says here then the little children were
brought to him that he might put his hands on them and prayed but the
disciples rebuked them so the disciples basically rebuked the kids from coming
to Jesus see a lot of people forget that kids are innocent they are the future of
our of anything of this world and they just put them aside see John Militarou
Ministries we see the kids as innocent people that need to show love to and to
understand there's someone out there that loves them and I thought of that
you know that was a very important because Jesus says here but Jesus said
let the little children come to me and do not forbid them for all such is the
kingdom of heaven so we need not to forget the kids at all and that's
our focus with these Christmas packages to show the love to these little
children because where we go to we go to the little villages tucked away in areas
that you can never imagine where they're at a lot of people think of the cities
think of the local towns near the cities but they forgive at the villages and
that's the focus that's where we do we go to the local to the deep deep villages
where it's impossible to go many times even by vehicle or even by I mean you
need a horse with a sleigh to go through the snow to get to some of these
villages but that's why I wanted to mention first I wanted to focus on that
that the kids that's what was our focus on this trip to show them the love that
when they grow up one day they won't forget that somebody actually cared
about them at Christmas that they came over there personally to give them a
gift and and show their love to them and show the love of Jesus but and you can
read the next verse from verse 14 also yeah the first 14 says and he laid hands
on them and departed from there so Jesus prayed for them and laid hands and loved
on them out of his whole heart because he knows that kids are the future of the
world and before you start to describe the trip this part of Romania which we
went it's is the Norse and the coldest point and Romania which is Moldavia
Moldova Ukraine and Romania and a little city called the Raban which is only
12,000 people live in that little city near to that city we went and this time
when it's a lot of poverty people they live in so much poverty their homes are
made by mud I mean even the locals call it the third world of Romania people I
never actually heard people say that in Romania say this is a third part third
world of Romania where you know you have the cities you have the towns and then
there's the third world part and we never been before and also your brother
came with us Emmanuel my brother came with me and my dad and was us three and
then we had two other people from Germany that joined us yes and then we
had two other people from the local areas it was a smaller team than usual
but you know it was actually a blessed we were very prosperous and what we did
we finished packages even faster than before it was a short trip and
successful but what we did first we started off with arriving there to the
local room in the local city where we usually go to where we stationed in a
little church where we bought you know we brought all the food all the
chocolates the sweets the teddy bears and where we we did a whole assembly
line we made a nice package right if you pretty soon we'll go to a videotape
where I explained each package what we have in them from the from all the
sweets all the way to the teddy bear if you guys want you can roll that the
video in this video show the go down this line that we created an assembly
line here and I'll explain to you guys exactly what we've ever putting in each
package today we went and bought these little chocolates from the flea market
we got a good price for these these are actually Ukrainian chocolates we got
these we're gonna put one of these in each package and then the the church in
Ingolstadt helped us purchase some Napoleon wafers and we're gonna put one
of these packages in the in the in the bag and then also we purchased a biscuit
vanilla it's like a cookie Romanian style cookie where it's either filled
with chocolate filling or vanilla filling we bought these to put one of
these and then we also have a box of raisins that were donated from America
from Fresno California actually we appreciate them for helping us out and
we're gonna probably put two of these in each package and then lastly we also
have chocolate bars that once again the church in Ingolstadt helped us purchase
these these are pretty big chocolate chocolates to put in the package and
when the kids see this they are shocked because a lot of people came and
reported by this to give to their child for Christmas so we're we're happy to
have these and then our brother Georgica is putting together our bags that every
year we do we put a label on here with a scripture from Isaiah explaining the
meaning of Christmas to each child so they know the message of the meaning of
Christmas so this is a good way of spreading the word at Christmas time to
the non-christians so we purchased these bags and he's putting these labels on
each and one of them and lastly the most famous thing that we do for John
Lutheran Ministries we collect teddy bears throughout the whole year and we put
teddy bears in each package and so we're going to be putting this in the
package with all the goodies that we have this is something that these kids
never receive anything and their families don't even have anything to
give them for Christmas and of course we go to the villages not the cities
mostly to the villages where nobody actually goes to them we're predicting
approximately a thousand we're trying to do these packages for them see this is
what we did those are all the items that we put on each package and we were able
to give approximately 1,500 out including a local network where we always give
some kids probably 250 kids exactly and in a local church that helped us with
that always helps us we're actually in connection with them all the time but we
that's approximately 1,500 packages we made this year it's not necessarily the
number that we focus on it's actually where we go who we touch we want to go
to areas where nobody goes that nobody even considers going where it's actually
impossible to go this year we were hit with a lot of snow a lot of weather
conditions and somehow we made it halfway through there and we're able to
distribute all those packages but you know it was it was not planned the way
certain things happened for instance we got stuck in the snow for a little bit
for five days and four nights and we got delayed coming back home but we thank
God for his protection and providing us a place to stay while we're stranded
literally stranded in a little village when we didn't know a soul there at all
but God helped us meet someone and they welcomed us in their home and opened
their arms wide open with food and I mean we were 11 people in two rooms only
which is pretty close quarters especially for us Americans growing up
here in America where we're used to our big homes and you know we all want our
little spaces in our house but but we we we thank God for not allowing us to
stay in the local schools on benches sleeping on them but he opened this house
for us where we could stay but so the villages where we visited where we
visited Red U we went to the local schools we spoke to them ahead of time
we told them I want to mention about those villages when I went in September
and searched the area myself yeah I checked to a local pastor over there from
ready in he described to me those villages nobody did anything for them
before before and also they are not even maybe one or two Christian evangelical
Christian in that area all of them they call themselves Christian as the
Orthodox as Greek Orthodox but they have nothing to do with the relationship with
Christ and the important things is when we came in those villages and even a
show later on in the village in a video we share with them about Christ what is
all about not only giving gifts to the kids but also give them hope for the
eternity and tell them about what we celebrate about what's the meaning of
Christmas yeah because when he asked them many times I asked him I said what
is the celebration this month some of them they said Santa Claus yeah other
they said the world it's Christmas rather they said is the birth of Jesus
and then I start open the Bible and talk to them about Jesus because not only the
kids was there but some of the parents and most of the teachers and even the
priest because they have religious hours there where they teach religion school
class so we this time we went to read you your can your can you can we went to
we went to Red Hoods fruit here and then those are the three villages we were able
to visit ourselves for the first day and we went into the schools and we talked
to the principals we talked to the directors and we they gathered the new
work all coming they were all prepared for me get all the kids all the kids
from preschool all the way to 7th grade or 7th grade or 8th grade maybe it is
8th grade but we we mostly focus on the smaller classes like the the preschool
all the way to fourth fifth grade because the older kids are a handful of
them only and because I don't feel but we each school had approximately two
three hundred kids in them and we went over there and we we spoke to them that
the directors and the principals were completely open for us to come they were
actually happy and and excited for us to go in their school and they allowed us
to read a scripture at the Bible they allowed us to explain to pray for them
to bless them and and they actually some of them had a song prepared for us in
in in Romanian actually a Christian song to sing to us because they want to thank
us for coming in the school so it was a very successful time over there yeah we
can show the video which we start we start first with what with the radium
right red you yeah we went in there and then we went into the other but this
video actually talks about how we were taking each goodie and put them in the
bag this is how the bag was formed it's myself my dad my brother Emmanuel and
then we have pastor Georgica with sister Veronica and then we also have a couple
other people that are gonna come in and help us but it's a lot of work it's
gonna take us several hours probably a day or two to put everything together
but this is the whole goal is to come here in the middle of winter it's
actually it's pretty cold it's minus 10 Celsius which is approximately what 10
15 degrees outside we're pretty bundled up thankfully we have a good stove here
that is providing us enough heat in this building and we'll be able to put this
together so we start off with two of these special chocolates from Ukraine
that we have we're gonna put two of these in the package then Napoleon
wafers we're gonna put in a Romanian biscuit with the filling of vanilla in
them and then we're gonna put two boxes of raisins in each package a bar of
chocolate and then dad and the and a teddy bear that's how we create these
packages and we're gonna create each and every one of them like this by hand and
then we hand this distribute them to the kids that we did those all by hand we we
were very small handful of people and 1500 we did 15 have packages by hand it
took a lot of time it was very cold obviously you can see that we were all
bundled up and but what is about the store I know it's not an interesting
heating system that's the that's the whole the what a man or call the poor
man's heating system in the church it's actually handmade by a local guy over
that made that and actually keeps it pretty warm in there well that that man
which is the pastor of that building over there the church of that place he's
building a new place and we pray the Lord to provide the funds to be able to
get a bigger location and we move our organization over there from Romania
from the south of Romania to the north of Romania because from next few years
we like to touch those area again and that's why we pray the Lord to provide
the funds to be able to go in the new building but we we've been very thankful
because we have that place yes we're very thankful I'm even though minus 27
Celsius which is very cold that's extremely cold yes but we so after doing
all those packages we went the first day over there so we're in the village of
the den our first location where we're doing it looks like it's um kindergarten
through sixth grade I believe is that sixth grade five six seven maybe sixth
grade fifth or sixth grade I just get the classes and they tell us zero one
or four plus the means oh okay so kindergarten it's K through fourth grade
no correct so this is our first location where we're going okay pretty yeah pretty
cold it's snowy so there's 57 kids in this school which is kindergarten the
fourth grade there's three teachers and then there was also 18 kids absent which
we gave to the professors to give out their gifts to them tomorrow so very
behaved kids very well behaved kids really good good job
more kind we're in the village of more Con I the professors just told me there's
310 kids I believe and there's a kindergarten through eighth grade here
they've all gathered together in this the packages
they were so thankful they came one by one like the mannerism they had wonder
I mean the mannerism they were so well taught in school and by their parents
they were thanking us one by one didn't just they waited even one child came up
to me and I was gonna hand him a gift he goes no no no I already got one I just
wanted to watch you guys because he most kids in other areas would say they would
have taken other back and like well like a year before was was an area near north
of Romania also we did in 2011 and there were so many kids over there and they
and some of them they hide their packets they want another one but these kids
but those kids were so different I I've been so amazed I mean I never seen my
life they are so poor mm-hmm but so well mannered well mannered well behaved I
mean we've been talked to the teachers there and that's their focus the teachers
actually every single hour almost they said thank you in Romanian language oh
yeah thank you thank you all the way from the preschool age all the way to
the seventh eighth grade age they were all thanking us for everything that we
did for them to actually come out there because nobody actually never went out
there to give out packages yeah and we went back again but unfortunately the
the we were blocked in we got blocked in and we were able to leave you know a
handful of items with the locals over there that we trusted and the actual
local elder right of the church yes and he will he actually actually donated all
the rest of the stuff right dad yeah so we're in in the village of Red U and
that's their surrounding villages are where we're supposed to donate this food
but unfortunately the roads are blocked and it's impossible for us to go in the
area to deliver this by hand so we're actually in the one of the elders home
here that he's the main guy that travels around these villages to take care of
the the Christians over here and so we're going to package them individually
in each bag according to their family according to their family and what we're
going to put in there we put rice we have rice this was donated by the church
in Ingolstadt we've worked with them several times and we were thankful that
they've donated once again to help us out so we have rice we have pasta we
have also got we have some oil to give to them flour and sugar these are just
necessary you know how should I say pantry needs that they need to have to
survive if they're trapped or if they don't have anything so this will make a
difference for them in the winter months especially now when they're trapped in
their homes so what our plan is to do is to put all the the supplies in the
package and then we go and we'll put them by name by how many kids are in each
family and after that when the roads clear up a little bit they'll come in
and pick up their package there are approximately 35 families some of them
range from 13 kids 15 kids or one child so we have to do according to how many
kids are in the family so this is the list that was given to us by the locals
here by the one of the elders in the fan in the church so unfortunately we were
not able to go to the the rest of the villages the schools that we were planned
to go to to donate the rest of the kids packages so we had to leave them here to
the one of the elders in the church that you can go donate them personally to the
schools they're expecting us to come by but there are more storms coming in
there's approximately nine feet of snow blocked up on the roads that's why we
came and go through nine feet of snow that's a lot of snow and the cloud machines
haven't had a chance to come by and clean up the roads yet so there's no way
for us to go through it and there's no way for us to go in next week because
they say there's another big storm coming in next week so that's where we're
storing them and then as soon as the door soon as the roads open up that's
where they'll be donating the rest of the packages. All these dry goods we thought of it ahead of
time saying this is a good pantry need in everyone's home to have. Was a ton of
food we brought from Germany. For Germany we had two people that came with us from
Germany actually drove all the way from Germany all the way to Romania which
took them almost two days. With a little trail in the back of the van. Mm-hmm and
they came over there and we unfortunately we were not able to go to
the families to donate the food but we we got all the names of the families
wrote each name on the bag we assembled you know we put each bag
with all according to how many kids or how many people were in the family we
put all the food in there and and we we gave the permission to the local elder
of the church over there to go deliver them once the roads opened up because
the weather was so bad that the villages were actually snowed in. Like six feet
high. At least six to nine feet high people were snowed in literally I mean we
didn't believe until we saw with our own eyes when we got stuck in the snow how
easy you are stranded in there. So Saturday morning because we left early in the
morning. And we our desire is to leave back Monday towards the middle of the
country to catch the plane and Wednesday. Yes. But was not possible we stood there
Saturday. Saturday we got stuck. Saturday night. After we finished the
mission over there we got Saturday night all night long. Sunday morning we went to
this family. We walked actually we had we had the military like one mile the
military from the border because we were right at the border of Moldova and
Romania. They had to come they actually the authorities sent them to us to come
and take us make us get out of the cars because it was impossible for the plow
machines. The reason part of the reason we got stuck was the workers first of
all was a Saturday a lot of them went drinking at the bar and by the time they
realized the snow was coming down so heavily it was too late for them to come
out. They came out with their plow machines but we forget the plow
machines are not plow machines you see in Western Europe or Romania. I mean in
America. They are from 1960. They are from the 60s like from World War II. I mean
they're so old you should see these plow machines you think you're in a movie.
And finally at midnight a plow machine said he is gonna come and get us out one
of the workers. He came after us and we followed him halfway through between a
village and another village and it broke down. That's what happened we broke down
in middle of a field where was one of the worst conditions possible. I mean the
windshield was incredible. Every three hours we have to come out to dig the
snow around the car because the car was snowing in. Exactly and then finally
Sunday after one two o'clock in the afternoon we had the military come two
people from the military to come and tell us that we have to walk knee-deep in
the snow for an hour for a mile and a half in the snow to walk. That's why we
say we've never experienced such an adventure before for us in John
Milton Industries. And he stood there like Sunday, Monday and Tuesday finally
Wednesday morning they start cleaning the road for the first time. Every three
hours they were saying they were saying somebody they were saying somebody but
nobody came over there. But we were thankful because later on we
put those food and those bags you know and for those 35 family and
Mitok Prut it's called Mitok Prut. I went in September in that area and I
searched the area every single house over there almost every from 10 you
count like 10 houses maybe one is made by brick the rest are made by mud. Mud
bricks. Mud brick and they have no foundation. I mean if it's a lot of
snow if it's a lot of rain they can easily tilt it like you see we went
through one of the homes which was tilted halfway almost and I don't know
how these ladies. It gets slanted. So we're walking down the street to a
widow that is approximately 70 years old and nobody's here to take care of her no
kids or anything like that. She lives by herself so we're walking down the street
to go give her some food that we have that was donated by some local churches in Germany
so we're walking in the snow.
This is the widow's house. It's almost falling down on her.
She did no testament.
Right next to you, her little goats.
Granddaughter I think and has a dog inside and also has a little goat yeah and the
house was all stilted I don't know how she can stay over there without thinking
the house is gonna fell down in one day and she never gonna come alive from
there but that's most of the houses made over there by mud and that's why so much
poverty over there in that area but we are so glad we were able to do this this
work of the Lord actually and I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart
because without many of you which they pray for us and also helping us to do
this project we were not able to do it and not only because we got stuck in the
snow that was an experience which probably for Claudia and and Emmanuel
even for yourself you never got stuck in a snow like this before.
Yeah was an experience to be in a country like that which which we went to this
house which was a mud house by the way this house which you which we sleep to
and they have no water in the well. That was quite an experience too because
there's a huge there was actually huge drought in the fall and the wells are
dried up and they have just a couple buckets every day two or three buckets
and they have to melt the snow and you have to count the the water in the
bathroom when you go to the bathroom you know we were thankful we actually had a
bathroom in the house because most of the time those kind of villages you have to
use the outhouses but we we were thankful that God you know even though
you would go well why would God allow you to get stuck in the snow we don't
know why but look what happened he provided a house for us to stay in a
roof a warm house with food and people were you know we they were actually
Christians and yeah they were Seventh-day Adventist Christians. Who would have known
that this would have happened nobody knew but we could see little by little
how God you know led our steps. And I was so thankful because we have some food
left in the van. We were able to help them too. We helped them to give them some good
size for to have for us probably the whole month of December and January with
with the food we were able to help them. This program is the first program we did
in 2013 after we came from this mission but I believe the Lord will keep that
door open for many of you to be touched by the gospel and to be changed because
the time is now exactly how we like to do it over and over again to go in those
conditions and Christmas time and the winter time. You helping us you've been
a part of this mission some of you maybe will say well I don't know if I can do
that but you can do it through the through the things what the Lord put in
your heart some people they help us in this and this mission with teddy bears
we thank you for these couples which they provided teddy bears for us Lee
Hanson and Levan they they provide all these teddy bears. We thank you for the
two churches in Germany which they provide for us that last several years
bars of chocolates and also those how you call that Napoleon's Napoleon yeah
yeah wifers and the food and the food yeah and also we thank you for the
people from United States which give us the finances to be able to purchase some
more stuff for Romania and also to pay for the gasoline and for our tickets and
and to see the blessing of God you know we need a team and only the Lord can put
a team together like that you know people from Germany from United States
and also from Romania and is the team was there but also is the desire to right
we have to have a desire to do the hard work yes if you would like to receive
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or email us at johnmeletaru at yahoo.com you will be up to date on our mission
work our television ministry and a word to bless and encourage you
to pray a message I say not only me because of the situation I was with
Andrei here and with my little one I say to him and how much it mattered to us and how
I kept in touch with you and how the Spirit of God knew and he took us through
words and gave us a word of
the man from the Holy Scripture is something that cannot be explained in words
it was not a brother to help us we could not do this mission
and I want to say on the other side of the mission we left Saturday morning in
the Holy Spirit of the Holy Spirit was the clean roads but when I got to the Holy Spirit
I saw that the snow was getting more and more and the road seemed to be
getting smaller instead of two benches I was walking a strip and with very hard I
got to the Redim at my brother's house there I was able to talk to him I said
I want to go with my brother he said no you can't get there a two meter snow
and it's soft and neither with horses and with sand you can't go because I haven't
frozen yet the snow was not frozen it was very soft and the horses went up to the
neck up to the neck I mean and they couldn't go through the snow they were
getting soft and then I found a way to buy bags right there from the radio I
bought white raffia bags I put on my brother's car to ring all the brothers
35 families are in Mitoprut and I said to give each name and how many are in the family
and the size of the family members I put the food in bags as you can see here on the video
even a small interview in which we describe what we do so I put them all in these raffia bags
I wrote the names, my brother wrote the names, a brother wrote the names and how many children
are there, we put them in raffia bags, we put them in the living room
with the list and with your names and at the moment when I finished 35 families I had
some food left that I took to the Succeava district where I was at least 10-12 families
but I didn't have the opportunity to go to him, my brother Georgica went personally and
brought them all the time I gave a few phrases from the radio that we went personally
I went to two houses I went to a house to a woman I see you as you can see on the video
and even my brother Georgica did an interview here our sister is very well
well she has a house of earth a house that is made of earth with cold walls
has a single room the house is left on one side ready to be restored in the house
next to it has two goats three goats with which she matures and also lives a dog
that is tied there here she eats in the same house with goats and goats
let's pray to God that God will bless him and give him health and
to be able to take care of the old woman
I have children come home to give them I have a new grandson
今 why are you crying my old is sick and that's the trial
after halling cloud to giving of sa este here
To do the front of the Hutchins all as part of this
Which is now very snowy and we can't get in
It's a half-meter left aside.
It's a house made of earth.
She's a widow.
She had three goats, a dog, her grandson.
They were all in two rooms.
In one room there were the goats,
in which she would milk them to have milk.
And in the room where she sat, where she made the fire,
and where she slept with her grandson.
We took her from what God gave us to give.
And I had the opportunity to show you a house of earth.
Of course, this house looks very bad.
But if I had the opportunity last year,
if you watch the video from September,
you can see the houses that we filmed,
a part of them.
Some of them are very well maintained, very beautiful.
And the people are very hospitable.
But they are houses of earth.
They don't have the possibility.
If a storm comes, a flood comes,
a big snow comes,
it can fall.
In September it was like in a certain period,
in a territory where a few dozen houses,
a few years ago, now it's an island.
There's nothing left because they were made of earth,
and they came flooding and the water took everything.
Yes, and in the first part of the mission
we gave 570 packages, approximately.
In the second part we gave 680 packages.
We left them to our brothers
to take them to school.
And we received an email and photos.
We received them, as our brothers said,
because they went on the snow.
The snow was frozen.
The people from Mito Pruts came with a special van
to get food, and there were children there.
We gave them packages for the children.
And what a joy it was.
A great joy.
It was a great joy.
But the greatest joy was when we left.
Yes.
Because after we left,
after we visited the houses of these children,
and we visited another house,
two more, I can say,
mentally they had a problem with these people.
They live in a very bright place.
People come and many of them are in charge.
And we had the opportunity to bring them some food
and we prayed for them.
We couldn't do more,
because the snow was very big.
I would have cried a lot,
as I promised to go face to face.
And I knew that,
even if we had the ticket for another week,
the snow wouldn't have stopped.
It would have lasted a few weeks.
That two more weeks it would be cold.
We couldn't afford it, Gian.
We had to stay until the new year
so we could get there in person.
And to get there,
and to get the tickets,
and to tell the owner that all three of you could come
with that flight, that was a miracle.
Well, what happened?
After we left,
we arrived in a village called Horodiste,
if I pronounced it correctly.
Horodiste, it's close to Paltiniş.
Between Horodiste and Dărăban
it's around 12 kilometers.
And we were in Horodiste
and we were waiting for a line of cars.
So we left the radium,
we drove about 6-8 kilometers until Horodiste.
And how long was the day?
It was about two and a half hours after lunch.
And we were told to go no further,
because the road was blocked.
Then we waited for a freight train to come.
A freight train came
and started clearing the road,
as you can see on the video.
And after a kilometer and a half
the freight train broke down.
So we were in a line of cars,
it took us to the freight train,
and it left us in the field.
Because the freight train broke down,
literally broke down and it left
in the end.
And it didn't come back.
It said it would come back in 3 hours,
6, 10, and we had to stay
in the car for 24 hours.
With the engine on.
Of course, from the beginning
we filled the tanks with water.
It was a miracle.
We had water, food,
we didn't have enough water and food
because if I had to go out,
I would have a viscol
that I couldn't resist.
As you can see on the video.
And what was wonderful
was that in front of us
was a brother, Victor,
a shepherd brother
from the Adventist Church
in Holodiste.
He was the one who finished his work.
It was Saturday after lunch
and he was the first car
in front of the column.
And after
8-9 hours
he came to us in the car.
And he said,
we can't come with you
in the car because
the engine is running out.
We have 10 liters of engine and it runs out.
And it was cold.
If the car didn't run,
you could freeze in the car.
Actually, after a few days
we were in the car.
In the car bottles that we left.
And we were with him and there
we stayed 24 hours until the next day.
The phones were running.
And how you had to go around the car
and get out of it.
In 3 hours, the shovel that we bought
helped us a lot because we cleaned the car
at the exhaust pipe
because it was getting cold
in an hour or an hour and a half
to get the floor wet.
The car almost got wet.
We cleaned it.
And he kept telling us,
he kept calling us.
When the
prefect of the county
when the ministry of transport
from Bucharest,
this brother Victor, had many acquaintances
he called one by one, one by one.
And he promised them from time to time
that after 3 hours a shovel would come.
After 2-3 hours, 3-1 hour.
And in the end
we found out that actually
10 of them were already broken
from the start and 5 of them
were broken on the road.
So you realize that
none of them came to us.
And after 24 days
the border police came
and told us to come to the village.
They came and they came down.
A boy and a girl came, they took us
and the brother who was with us
Victor had diabetes, he didn't take
medicine for a long time.
We prayed for him, we said
we don't care, we pray to God
that he will keep you healthy.
It was hard, we went 1.5 km
through the snow, through the rain.
You have a video of that.
To take us to a village where
we stayed with a grandson, we praised the Lord
to the Mironescu family.
The Lord blesses them.
The Mironescu family was a family
and a family that took care of us for 3 more nights.
So we stayed one night in the car
and 3 nights in the car.
4 nights in total we stayed.
We stayed in 2 rooms.
They gave us everything they had.
Morning, lunch and evening.
8 people, only you.
8 people, only us, plus them 2.
The family, yes.
Plus their daughter.
So we were quite crowded
in their room.
They slept on the floor
so we could sleep on the floor.
Of course the others slept on the floor
when we didn't all have a room.
So 2-4 people couldn't sleep.
And I bless the Lord
that they gave us some food
because we sent 2 young people
to the van the next day.
They went and brought some food.
Glory be to God!
And finally we had Wednesday morning.
So you think about it.
Wednesday morning we had to be in Cluj.
And Wednesday morning
the weather was very nice.
It was a bit of a cold.
But we came.
We were told to go.
That there was a dam
that the Minister of Transport
came with a helicopter to watch over.
All this activity, the Prefect,
I understood that he gave them
an ultimatum to be released.
We talked on the phone
with everyone.
I was on the third antenna
from Romania.
They interviewed me twice on the phone.
They called me from Cluj, Timisoara,
and they told me that I heard
the voice on the television.
And they wanted to know
if we were okay or not.
Because they said that all the roads
were cleaned. And there was no clean road
for 4, 5 days.
And it was a road
for the judge,
a road from Prut
to Siret.
It was
a very important road.
It was
a road that was
blocked by the police.
We saw animals
that died in the cold.
They were not able
to get them out of the snow.
We were here
at the Romanian TV.
We were watching
on the phone, on the map.
We were used to the locals.
We praise God that this family
was there.
Because the majority
of our parents were
in the car with people,
they stayed on benches
in the village school.
Or in the Orthodox Church.
In the Orthodox Church, yes.
And you realize that they had no
possibility to sleep there
except on wooden benches.
I remember when I was talking
on the phone with you
and you were saying that
during that period there was a woman
who was supposed to be born,
but she died.
Yes, many cases happened.
We were watching on the TV
and they were saying that
a woman from Mitoc Prut,
if I'm not mistaken,
was born,
a child died and
she couldn't come to save
or help her.
The child was not able
to move.
Yes, many cases happened during that period.
People died.
I thank God and thank
all those who prayed for us
and helped us
to complete this mission.
I couldn't go
to only three villages with children
but I am convinced that
Mitoc, who actually
spoke with
the majority of the primary school
and teachers from the villages
were waiting for us.
He brought the work to the end
when the snow started
to fall on the road.
Schools were closed for weeks
and only when he managed to
close the school,
before Christmas or after Christmas,
I don't know when,
but I know that he managed to
reach all the children
who had to go with the packages
that we left for the number
of schools that were there.
I also thank
Victor, the pastor's brother
from the Adventist Church,
Visan, if I am not mistaken,
his family name,
together with his sister Carmen,
who was a great blessing
when she introduced us to the Mironescu family
and we were able to
spend the night there.
We don't want to forget
our prayer list
and pray for them.
And once again, Victor promised us
to live in a town
called Dărăbani.
It is a very beautiful town,
well-arranged,
we want to come and celebrate
the year that is actually coming,
the year of 2003,
and we want to go back.
After four days of staying
in the snow with the cars,
finally the roads opened
and we can go out.
It is very cold,
it is minus 6 to minus 10 degrees
outside, but thank God
that we were able to get out
of the snow.
We are trying to get out
of the snow,
but now we are trying to fill it up
so that we can go to the first town
of Dărăbani,
where we will change the road.
We thank all those who have helped us
and we believe that with the help of God
we will get to the end.
We even got plane tickets
for a few days,
but they didn't stop us
and they are taking us out of here.
Gian, what touched me
extraordinarily impressed me
when you spoke on the phone
with the Mironesco family,
where did you stay?
Good Samaritans, in other words,
where did you stay all these days?
And you thanked them again,
happy new year, you prayed with the Lord Jesus,
and you asked a little on the phone
about the situation with water.
When you said that even in water,
in the toilet, for example,
you had to measure with a cane.
Yes, in the toilet.
And you asked,
but now,
when we were new,
or maybe it was just this year...
Two or three
or four years ago,
you told me,
and I was very impressed,
I told you, after you finished the conversation,
in all the conversation
you had with this brother,
Gian, I didn't hear a word
of whispers or whispers
from this man's mouth.
I was so impressed
and you asked a few times
and how do you deal with animals,
how do you deal with
the man to wet something?
And I said,
Brother, that's how it is,
but glory to the Lord!
I was so impressed
and I told you, Gian,
how many of us,
those of us who are here,
have learned,
and other brothers and sisters,
how many have learned,
when everything is there
and the man is singing
and whispers and whispers
and these people,
every time,
not only praising the good of God,
it's good, brother,
glory to the Lord,
who could be even worse.
And in their turn,
as we discussed at the beginning,
from the beginning of the program,
how God puts us as members
of the same body,
the body of Christ,
who was thinking
when you were ready to leave here
or when the children were ready to leave,
brothers from here,
how many other brothers
you will meet
that no one would have thought of
and the Lord has united you all
in the chain of love, Gian,
because he is the Spirit of God,
the Spirit of God,
because in the Spirit of God
there is unity, you can feel it,
and the Lord Jesus is blessing these brothers.
It was an extraordinary peace
in these four nights
that we spent together,
and I was talking to my brother Sebi
and he was telling me,
and he told me on the phone
when I talked to him,
and his wife Cornelia said,
I can't believe that
four nights and five days
I didn't drink coffee,
and she says,
usually when I don't drink coffee
I am very restless
and agitated,
and I have had such peace
and such silence
for so long.
Because he mentioned the atmosphere.
The atmosphere of peace.
First of all, the people who live there
are not the ones who complain,
in English,
they are the ones who are murmuring
and continuously voicing
about the situation they are living in.
How many people today
are going through different difficulties
even here in America
and they are constantly hearing
that they are murmuring
about the situation they are living in,
but when you look at
the people in Romania,
they are so simple,
and they are living
so simply in the 21st century,
the year 2013,
in which we entered,
in this year,
and to see on their faces
peace and joy
and to go through it as best as you can.
More than impressive are the children
that I gave each of them a package of tea.
The children were saying that they wanted
to give a package to a child
and they said no, they didn't receive it.
It is something else that they have to receive.
So,
such a peace
and simplicity
that they saw
in the children
from the Moldovan part.
What I want to say is that time has passed
and Jesus speaks in the Gospel
according to Matthew
and in the Gospel according to Luke.
He says that they brought some children
to put their hands on them
and to pray for them,
but the disciples were fighting them.
And Jesus said,
let the children come to me
and do not stop them
because the kingdom of those
is of those like them.
And in Luke 17, 18,
verse 17 says,
I tell you truly,
that whoever will not receive
the kingdom of God
as a child,
with no face,
will not enter it.
That's right.
And I would like the Spirit of God
to bless each of us.
Once again, I want to thank
all those who God put in their hearts
to be in this work
and I have full faith
that even this year, 2013,
God will put you in the hands
of those who are not
and that God will put you
in the heart of those
who will continue
to be in the way of God.